RS800 Nationals - Day 1

RS800 National Championship Day One 16 August 2018

Rain rain go away come back when the RS200s are here.  Day one of the RS800 Nationals dawned with it chucking it down with rain which is safe to say isn’t what we expected from the 2018 great British summer.

However, thankfully the weather got the message and once the thorough briefing and welcome was over, the fleet launched for the bay in a dying 10 knots North Westerly.  The sail out to the bay gave everyone a chance to shake out their rigging mishaps - special shout out to Martin Brooks and Ian Brooks and for managing rig their trapeze wires inside the main halyard, AND their kite halyard inside the jib hanks.  Perfect.  Wooden spoon prize!

Now to the racing.  It took a LONG time to get started.  Due to the abundance of pros (and some egos) the line was pushed very hard and new records were made for the RS800 fleet. The norm of a nice, leisurely, calm fleet was long gone and the recalls were out in force.  We managed to put the race officer through a grand total THREE black flag recalls. Unheard of. Finally we got away on the fourth go.  Tom Morris and “Hi I’m Guy” Fillmore got a jump on the fleet from the middle of the line, along with Ian and Chris Martin.  In hot pursuit were Tim Gratton and Fiona Hampshire, The Cockerills, Maddy Anderson and Matt Reid, and Simon Hiscocks and Ellie Aldridge.  The first run shook out a few of the gaps whilst Tom and “Hi I’m Guy” extended their lead.  The rest of the fleet were left to race for 2nd place which Tim and Fiona managed to nab on the line from Maddie and Matt.  The Cockerills pulled up to fourth whilst Simon and Ellie finished in fifth.

Thankfully, the fleet were back to standard RS800 ways with a nice and clean second start. The boats on the left started pull ahead half way up the beat but again it was Tom and “Hi I’m Guy” who nailed the layline into the first mark.  There was no catching them after they stepped on the accelerator downwind.  There was a big scrap for the rest of the podium, including a game of hide and seek tying to find the windward mark.  Rory Hunter and Steph Orton made massive gains pulling through to 2nd with John Gimson and Anna Burnet in 3rd and Luke and Emma McEwen in 4th.  All that was left was a huge beat home for beers in the sunshine.

Report by Fiona Hampshire

Day two

RS800 National Championship Day Two 17 August 2018

Weymouth Bay provided the RS800 fleet with champagne conditions for day two of the RS Games.  The fleet launched in a puffy 10 to 12 knots and sailed out to the far side of Weymouth Bay. 

Race one saw the fleet split off the line with groups heading left and right, with the right group picking up a good shift.  Luke and Emma McEwen took full advantage of this and lead around the top mark.  Behind the battle was tight with Tim Gratton (Tim number 2) and Fiona Hampshire holding off Tom Morris and Guy Filmore.   So advantage to Luke and Emma.

Race 2 saw the breeze softer then increase for the 2nd two laps, as the sun came out and windy Weymouth turned it on!  Luke and Emma stormed off in the lead with Pete Barton and Chris Feibusch making the most of the puffs down the run to round the gate 2nd closely followed by Rory Hunter and Steph Orton who slowly reeled them in to take 2nd.  Tom and Guy’s finished 5^th.   Was this the start of a change in the power struggle with the McEwen's?

The 3rd race was sailed in glorious conditions with the sun out and a 17 knot breeze.   At the top Mark Andy and Allyson Jeffries lead the fleet round but were rolled on the 1st gybe by Tom and Guy who sailed off to another win.  Luke and Emma tried everything to catch the championship leaders but there was no stopping them.

Day 3 looks set to be a repeat of today with the potential for a little more wind.

Report by Andy Jeffries

Day three

RS800 National Championship Day Three 18 August 2018

Races 6, 7 and 8 on day three of the RS800 National Championships were once again sailed out in the glorious waters of Weymouth Bay in a steadily building WSW breeze.

Class newbie Tom Morris with veteran crew Guy Fillmore dominated with blistering boat speed to fire in three bullets all but sewing up the Championship win.

 All three races were sailed in the sort of conditions that the RS800s revel in, bouncing over the waves of Weymouth bay in 20 knots plus.  No other boat offers this kind of exhilaration and attainable performance that had all the crews grinning from ear to ear regardless of where they finished on the race course.

Behind the dominant pair of Tom and Guy the fight for 2^nd place is truly on between former National Champions and reigning European Champions, Luke and Emma McEwen and the scratch team of Rory Hunter and Steph Orton in their 17 year old borrowed boat going into the final day.

Further down the racing has been incredibly close with the top 10 tightly bunched and many gains or losses to be made up and down the order as the Championship reaches its climax on Sunday.

Report by Chris Feibusch

Overall event report

RS800 National Championship 2018 Overall Report

After Saturday’s awesome sailing conditions the 44 RS800 crews were all in buoyant mood and ready to party.  Benefitting from super-efficient race management, the fleet were ashore by 3pm to enjoy the sunny afternoon, have a quick nap and prepare their fancy dress outfits for the evening’s festivities.

Happy hour kicked things off with avid viewing of Sportography.tv’s drone footage from the day’s racing on the big screen, before WPNSA served up a hearty chilli and the R and S’s gathered – rainbows, roosters, racing snakes, rum bottles, rudders, rain clouds, robins, rabbits, Ringo Star, Romans, Russia and Salisbury (prize for most cryptic!), suns, sharks, sticks, stripes, sombreros, sponge bob square pants (very useful when drinks got spilt on the dance floor), Superman, space aliens and scousers…  All heading as quickly as possible to the dance floor where Steel from RS800 fleet’s long-time favourite Steel Strum banged out the Summer-vibe tunes.

Tom Morris and Guy Filmore could party in the happy knowledge they had stitched up the championship with a day to spare.  Rory displayed his true competitive nature by dominating the inflatable limbo competition.  The rest of the fleet were psyching themselves up for a Big Sunday with 22 knots+ forecast and racing moved forward to a slightly less civilised earlier start time as all five fleets at the RS Games were scheduled to race in the harbour due to the forecast.

Sunday dawned predictably windy but looked just about doable when viewed downwind (and waves) from the balcony at WPNSA.  The Race Officer set out to monitor conditions and just as the fleet was due to launch a particularly feisty squall came through triggering an hour’s postponement.  Sadly an hour later conditions had not calmed down sufficiently and the RS800 fleet lost its window of opportunity to get on the water and continue the battle.

So results from Saturday held – the worthy new champions Tom and Guy with a rude number of first places, runners up Luke and Emma McEwen (Team Gul) the only team managing to wrestle some race wins off the champions and in 3^rd Rory Hunter and Steph Orton proving that a 17 year old boat and zero time in the boat together can be overcome by youth and raw talent as they improved race on race!

Despite the fact Phil Walker and John Mather failed to make it to the race course on day one, thereby using up all their discards and narrowly missing a wooden spoon award, they achieved an impressive 4^th place with a solid series.  Tied on points was a very close 5^th from father and son team Paul and Peter Jenkins who revelled in the windy conditions.  John Gimson and Anna Burnett pipped Pete Barton and Chris Feibusch on count back to 6^th place.

The silver fleet was won by new-comers Maddy Anderson and Matt Reid who showed great potential and infectious enthusiasm throughout the event.

The fleet was really pleased to welcome five members of the British Sailing Team looking for a fun refresher from their professional 49erFX and Nacra campaigns.  They all embraced the spirit of RS800 racing on and off the water.  It was also really great to see so many other new faces in the dinghy park and to make new friends; we hope to see many of them return to future events.

For those that like statistics:

• 44 teams – continuing 5 years of growth in the fleet
• Over a third of teams were competing at their first RS800 UK Nationals
• 11 sailors had previously won RS800 National or European Championship titles
• Boats travelled from Scotland, Northern Ireland, France and The Netherlands
• The top 5 included one master, 2 ladies and 3 youths across the full range of the weight equalisation table
• First place boat was crew sheeting, second place was helm sheeting
• Over half the teams were mixed, with 5 girl helms and 20 girl crews

Big thank you to Harken for the daily and overall prizes, to Rooster for supporting the RS800 fleet all year on their National Tour and providing cool RS Games T-shirts and neck gaiters to all competitors, to Zest for being on site for emergency boat repairs each day keeping everyone on the water, to RS Sailing for making the whole RS Games an incredible event to be part of and for releasing their talented employees to the RS Party Stage to DJ & drum so we could dance into the night, to Hyde Sails to donating a spinnaker which was awarded to the Scottish team for their epic journey to their first ever RS800 regatta, to Yachts and Yachting for providing great reading ashore, and to our long standing sponsors Volvo and Noble Marine for their continued support of the RS Class Association.

Thank you to WPNSA for hosting the RS800 fleet; to the brilliant race team – our Race Officer Ian Bullock and PRO Peter Saxton – with all their hard-working mark layers, rescue team and dedicated volunteers – for providing such high standard racing and understanding the needs of the RS800 sailors to have time to party hard too; and to Clare Sargent and the rest of the RS Class Association team for their huge number of hours of work behind the scenes to bring us such a fantastic Championships yet again.

Next year the class celebrates its 20^th birthday at the National Championships at Eastbourne Sovereign Sailing Club from 5^th to 8^th September 2019.  We look forward to welcoming back lots of ex-RS800 sailors for a reunion party and to tempting them back on the water for some racing.  2019 also sees the fleet return to Lac du Der in France at Easter for the super-friendly Open Skiff event and to Garda in Italy for a huge RS800 Europeans in July. 

Good luck to Tom and Guy at the Endeavour Trophy!

Report by Luke and Emma McEwen

Beautiful hand made porcelain medals by Emma McEwen

RS800 National Championship Prizes

Endeavour Trophy:  Alexandre Emanuel and Quentin Milleret from France

Loving Cup:  Luke and Emma McEwen from Royal Lymington YC

1^st Silver:  Maddy Anderson and Matt Reid from Brightlingsea and Spinnaker SCs

1^st Lady Helm:  Maddy Anderson from Brightlingsea SC

1^st Lady Crew:   Emma McEwen from Royal Lymington YC

1^st Youth Helm: Rory Hunter from Arran YC

1^st Youth Crew:  Steph Orton

1^st Master Helm:  Paul Jenkins from Eastbourne SSC                                        

1^st Master Crew:  Chris Feibusch from Hayling Island SC

6^th:  John Gimson and Anna Burnet from Rudyard Lake SC and Royal Northern & Clyde

5^th:  Paul and Peter Jenkins from Eastbourne SSC

4^th:  Phil Walker and John Mather from HISC

3^rd:  Rory Hunter and Steph Orton from Arran YC

2^nd:  Luke and Emma McEwen from Royal Lymington YC

1^st RS800 National Champions:   Tom Morris and Guy Fillmore from Hayling Island SC